Can one be both religious and a freethinker?

Question

Why or why not?

Answer 1

Only to a point. And it depends on what your religion is.

Answer 2

Yes. Religion is not just a person that has a belief in a deity. Religion is the act of a persons entire belief system. A person can be very religious about being a freethinker.

Answer 3

Yes you can. But it is not easy, to buck the traditional. Religion tends to be dogmatic and traditional. But, does not have to be, since I believe in a God, that encourages freethinking, and advanced spiritual ideas that can come from this. New religions can form and old religions can evolve. Some of these will accept free thinkers. Maybe, we need to ask what religions out there, would be open to a free thinker, and find which ones volunteer.

Answer 4

No, those terms are mutually exclusive.

To be religious is to have dogma - a predisposition to a certain belief. That leaves no room for reason or "freethinking" on questions of spirituality.

Answer 5

No, because the two things are contradictions in terms. Once you embrace a "Religion" you have to agree to be bound by the strict tenets of that religion and by that very token you give up the right to "think" for yourself. You contradict the whole meaning of what you take on when you embrace that particular belief system, if you then try to do your own thinking and your own interpreting of the meaning of anything. You either allow yourself the freedom to think for yourself, or you accept the chains of a belief system that insists you let them do the thinking for you.

Answer 6

Sure,,,religion requires you to be a free thinker. If we thought like all the rest of the world, following their idea, that the more material goods you have and the better looking you are,,,,you will have great happiness, we would be led like pigs to the slaughter....Brittney look happy to you?

It is just because I didn't dismiss anything as being possible that I considered the possibility that God existed back before I got saved...atheists who consider themselves free thinkers....come on...they won't ever consider the idea that God exist..how free thinking is that?

Answer 7

Yes. Religion is based on myth. Myth is not necessarily false, but it cannot be empirically proven to be either true or false. Many religious people confine the deity to preconceived notions, while free thinkers do not define the deity, but rather allow the deity to reveal him or her self with no human imposed limitations. I am a committed Christian, and a free thinker in that I do not fully understand God or the Christ event, but rely on God's self-revelation to guide me.

Answer 8

This question is a re-tread from one earlier this week.

But, I'll repeat myself, cause I like to....

To me (and for me) having faith demands free thinking. God presents me with new information everyday. That info can come from anywhere or anyone (Christian or not). Sometimes that info can challenge me, and sometimes re-mold my faith a bit.... sometimes a lot.

To me, the movement of the Living God in my life is core. THe Bible supports it, my church supports it, but neither is the be all end all.

Hope that's made some kind of sense .

peace regards respects

Answer 9

What you call a "Freethinker" is not something I would want to be -
I am grateful to know God and have him in my life - and to follow his ways that work in life.

Answer 10

God gave us Free Will. Altough he has given us rules to live by we can still take our own path and be freethinkers.

Answer 11

Yes.

To search out one's own desires and live or search out one's own brokeness and live are pretty much the same thought process, aren't they?

As an aside, which one requires more thought to live out?

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